DVD playback apparatuses are establishing a firm position as packaged media playback apparatuses. A DVD playback apparatus has an interpreter-type execution main body, and executes playback control by issuing commands to the execution main body. Although it is imperative to write playback control with commands for a DVD apparatus, demands have arisen for writing playback control with Java programming for upcoming BD playback apparatuses. This is in order to call software houses whose expertise is in Java programming to join BD content creation enterprises.
When instructed to play a two-hour long digital stream, the interpreter-type execution main body in a DVD apparatus returns no response for the two hours, but returns a response when the two hours have elapsed. However, a Java virtual machine, which is the main execution body of a Java program, is an event-driven main execution body, and returns a response directly after decoding a playback command and issuing an instruction to a lower layer. This means that it is impossible perform control to cause processing that is to be performed after the two-hour playback time elapses.